Some food, some drink.

Four ingredients, a zip-top bag, and the patience of a saint: Baking bread with preschoolers.

Abstract: Water, yeast, salt, flour. The ingredient list is zen,
so why is it that more people don't bake bread at home? Beyond time, I
think there's an intimidation factor that's associated with a
staple food that ubiquitously comes in twisty-tie bags at a
supermarket. I'll bet it was soon after the second time I pulled a
free-form loaf out of my oven that I realized that bread-making
was fundamentally so easy that a child could/should be able to do it.
In what was surely a lapse of sanity, I decided that I was gonna prove
myself right; so I taught a short class at my local
recreation center. For this seminar, preschoolers and their parents
worked together to create bread dough that they would be able to take
home and bake in time for the family's evening meal. With just a little
thoughtful planning, some simple baking becomes an opportunity for
quality time with your kids; and I can't think of a better way to spend
time with my
little ones than doing something where the reward is uh, "baked-in".

Purpose: When I'm to the point where I know a recipe
like the back of my hand, I love to take that knowledge and share it
with my kids. I happen to think baking's a good place to start (as long
as mom or dad is manning the oven of course), as there isn't much about
throwing together baked goods that's all that time-sensitive before it
hits the oven.

My local rec center gives
self-proclaimed know-it-alls like myself the
opportunity to teach classes in a variety of subjects from couponing to
yoga and everything else in between. I thought it might be kind of fun
to do
a cooking class for little kids, but I wanted to do something a bit
more than decorating cookies or making animal cut-outs from American
cheese singles. I wanted something healthy
and unanimously delicious that could be shared. I wanted bread.

The great thing about those 'no-knead' bread recipes is that they are
ridiculously simple, yet they consistently make for a killer loaf of
bread. Dump in the ingredients, mix it up a little, and then wait while
the
dough 'kneads' itself as the yeast does
its thing.
It's that hands-off approach, that renders a crispy-chewy crust and an
irregular crumb that is inherently delicate and soft. The concept of
making bread by hand without complex ingredients is far and away
different than the bread we buy at the supermarket. So different in
fact that
somewhere along the way, somebody decided to start calling it 'artisan'
(I'm sure a hipster somewhere can
take credit for that). I just call it delicious. All the same, this
loosey-goosey approach to
baking is a perfect fit for little kids if the whole experience can be
put on rails. To make that
happen I had to scale down a no-knead style recipe so that it could
conveniently fit in
a zip-top bag where the mess could be [mostly] contained. From there,
the dough could be taken home to proof, and mom or dad could then slap
it down on a parchment-lined
sheet pan so it could be ready just in time for dinner.

Into a 1 gallon zip-top bag, add flour, yeast & salt. Seal the bag, and shake up good. Open the bag, add the water and then close the bag to gently knead the whole mess into a dough.

Open the bag and let it sit at room temperature for two-ish hours to proof. When it's time to bake, cut open the bag and sprinkle the dough with as much flour as necessary to keep the dough from sticking to everything so you can [attempt to] shape the dough into a ball. Place the ball on a parchment-lined sheet pan and preheat the oven to 450F. When the oven's hot, dust the dough with a bit more flour, slash the top a couple of times with a serrated knife and bake for 25-30 minutes. Let the loaf cool at least 15 minutes before slicing with a serrated knife.

… and, if you're not able to bake the same day:

After the initial two-hour proof, close the bag except for the last inch and put it in the fridge. The dough should easily keep for another 3-5 days. When it's time to bake, after shaping and placing the ball o' dough on the parchment, let it rest at room temperature for an hour before firing up the oven.

Observation:

This style of bread making is probably the reason I started
baking bread in the first place. If this oft-cited New
York Times piece on no-knead bread piques your interest in simple
home-baked bread, I would emphatically
recommend Artisan Bread in
Five Minutes a Day.

This type of dough is referred to by the professionals as a
high-hydration
dough. This is a dough that is very sticky, especially at room
temperature. When it's time to assemble that glutinous mass into
something that looks like a ball, don't be stingy with that flour. Dust
with as much as it takes to keep the dough from sticking until you can
slap it
down on the parchment.

You could also bake this on a baking stone if you've got one.
Although a cornmealed pizza peel is the standard method to get a loaf
to the stone, you'll
probably be a'ight just putting the dough-laden parchment
directly on the
stone.

About that parchment
- It
ain't wax paper. This is paper that's
been impregnated with silicone so it can withstand high oven
temperatures. If you didn't know the difference before reading this,
I've
just saved you
from making a terrible mistake.

This makes about a three-quarter pound loaf that should accompany
a dinner for about three or four people. If you're feeding more, the
proportions can easily be doubled, and it should all still fit
comfortably in
the gallon baggie.

There's nothing that says you gotta make this in a zip-top bag.
The only reason I use the bag is to give the kids a less-messy mixing
experience with a transport vessel to boot. Assuming you trust your
kids to not make a mess
(huh?), a bowl and
spoon should work just fine (I've even found empirical
evidence to back these claims).

Results: Admittedly, part of the reason I cook with my
kids is a bit selfish: I like to mess in the kitchen; you're stuck with
dad; deal with it. On the other hand, my kids learn some valuable
stuff, and they don't even know that it's time that I've blocked off in
the daily
routine as a
"learning opportunity". You want to teach your
kids math and science? We've got volumetric and weight measuring, and
we've
got microorganisms that are respiring. You need to teach reading?
Labels and instructions abound. What about values? Well, we've got that
covered too. The more kids cook, the more they understand that
ultimately that food has to
be made.
In a world where prepared food seems to be the norm, it's good for kids
to know that something even as basic as bread comes from somewhere
before the store (I've taken this one
step further with my little one). Anyway, when the flour's settled,
a kid gets
to experience a finished
product is tangible, damn tasty, and
evoking of positive reactions
from those they are
closest to; and that makes for some of the finest positive
reinforcement a parent can hope for.

If y'all want to play along at home, follow
this link for a kid-friendly rebus-style recipe
included with the recipe proper as listed here in the post. Those
squares to the left are for stickers so
that the steps can be marked off as you do 'em. Kids love stickers. I
don't think I could have got thru the potty training years without them.

Gallery:

You can't really go teaching kids to cook until you've kid-proofed
the recipe. Meet my head of research and development.

You can't really go teaching kids to cook until you've kid-proofed
the recipe. Meet my head of research and development.